cinder block

American  

noun

1. a concrete building block made with a cinder aggregate.

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cinder block British  

noun

1. the usual US name for breeze block

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Etymology

Origin of cinder block

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

The daughter of a traveling salesman, Flores grew up modestly in the cinder block hills of Catia, a hardscrabble district of western Caracas.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026

Some of the footage showed the Beach refugee camp, an area of squat, tightly packed cinder block houses, with washing hanging outside.

From Reuters • Nov. 27, 2023

When I was in third grade, our survival drills required us to sit with our little faces pressed against the pastel cinder block walls of our school hallway to contemplate the nuclear apocalypse.

From Salon • Nov. 22, 2023

A few years later, at the Watts Empowerment Center, a gray cinder block recreation center in the middle of Imperial Courts, Mabon confided in Justin Mayo: He still wanted to be president.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 19, 2023

Somebody carved “D wuz here” into the cinder block, and I don’t know what’s worse—the fact that they were bragging about being here or that they can’t spell “was.”

From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas